A Francophone member of the military contacted us about a regulation in the Environmental Protection Act that he needed for work, but was not available in French. He told us that the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks requires an exam before working with certain substances. The …
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A Francophone member of the military contacted us about a regulation in the Environmental Protection Act that he needed for work, but was not available in French.
No room for failure
Two Francophone students from Northern Ontario reached out to us with concerns about the quality of the French version of the accreditation exam for emergency medical care assistants. According to the students, the French version of the exam contained grammatical and contextual mistakes that …
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Two Francophone students from Northern Ontario reached out to us with concerns about the quality of the French version of the accreditation exam for emergency medical care assistants.
A Place for French?
A Franco-Torontonian reached out to let us know that content on Infrastructure Ontario’s X account (@InfraOntario) about plans for an upcoming spa, water park and multi-storey parking garage at Ontario Place was only available in English. He looked to see whether the posts were available in French …
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A Franco-Torontonian reached out to let us know that content on Infrastructure Ontario’s X account (@InfraOntario) about plans for an upcoming spa, water park and multi-storey parking garage at Ontario Place was only available in English.
Bet on bilingual
A Francophone reached out to us because he was unable to find French versions of posts on the social media accounts of Lotto Max (Facebook, Instagram and X). The posts were only available in English. We raised this with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), which told us that Lotto Max …
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A Francophone reached out to us because he was unable to find French versions of posts on the social media accounts of Lotto Max (Facebook, Instagram and X).
Everything at the ready
A Francophone filed a complaint about an announcement of a public consultation on the reform of housing industry regulations posted to the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery’s French LinkedIn page. The post was written in French, but four of the five attached informational documents …
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A Francophone filed a complaint about an announcement of a public consultation on the reform of housing industry regulations posted to the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery’s French LinkedIn page.
Our voices matter too
A Francophone municipal employee in Eastern Ontario was invited to take part in an English-only survey on the quality of municipal and provincial emergency management programs. The goal of the survey was to collect information about the effectiveness of compliance review and quality assessment …
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A Francophone municipal employee in Eastern Ontario was invited to take part in an English-only survey on the quality of municipal and provincial emergency management programs.
2022-2023 Annual Report of the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario
O N TA R I O ’ S WATC H D O G • C H I E N D E G A R D E D E L’ O N TA R I O Annual Report of the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario 2022-2023 O F F I C E O F T H E O M B U D S M A N O F O N T A R I O C H I E N D E G A R D E D E L’ O N TA R I O O N T A R I O Office of the Ombudsman of …
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Commissioner's Message - Tangible results: I am pleased to present the 2022-2023 Annual Report of the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario. The Commissioner plays an important role in supporting Ontario’s Francophone community, and is responsible for monitoring compliance with the French Language Services Act and recommending ways to improve the delivery of government services in French.
Funding frustration
The mother of an 11-year-old with autism and developmental disabilities contacted us when she wasn’t able to access funding under the Ontario Autism Program (OAP) or the Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities program (ACSD), even though she believed her child was eligible for both. When …
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The mother of an 11-year-old with autism and developmental disabilities contacted us when she wasn’t able to access funding under the Ontario Autism Program (OAP) or the Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities program (ACSD), even though she believed her child was eligible for both.
Suspended payment
A woman was owed thousands of dollars in support payments by a former spouse who was living in British Columbia. She told us she was concerned that the Interjurisdictional Support Orders Unit of the Family Responsibility Office (FRO), which handles interprovincial cases, was not enforcing a court …
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A woman was owed thousands of dollars in support payments by a former spouse who was living in British Columbia.
Seal of disapproval
A man who pays family support through the Family Responsibility Office (FRO) complained to us that the FRO was garnishing too much from his federal disability payments, leaving him unable to pay his rent. We raised the case with FRO staff, noting that a recent court order set out how much it could …
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A man who pays family support through the Family Responsibility Office (FRO) complained to us that the FRO was garnishing too much from his federal disability payments, leaving him unable to pay his rent.
Translation audit-y
A man noticed a post in French on the Office of the Auditor General’s Twitter account, announcing the release of its annual report on the environment. A click on the hyperlink took him to the Auditor General’s website, and he noticed that only the executive summary of the report was posted on the …
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A man noticed a post in French on the Office of the Auditor General’s Twitter account, announcing the release of its annual report on the environment.
Language integrity
A man saw a post in French on Twitter from the Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario, indicating that the latest report from the Integrity Commissioner was available, with a link to the report “Re: The Honourable Peter Bethlenfalvy, President of the Treasury Board.” This link took him to …
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A man saw a post in French on Twitter from the Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario, indicating that the latest report from the Integrity Commissioner was available, with a link to the report “Re: The Honourable Peter Bethlenfalvy, President of the Treasury Board.”
Equivalent access to information
A woman seeking a review as part of her work visited the website of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC). While browsing the site, she noticed that its URL was in English. She also noticed translation omissions. For example, the URL for the contacts page read “Contact us” even though the …
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A woman seeking a review as part of her work visited the website of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC).
“Please speak in English”
A man shared with us his family’s experience after their dying mother was admitted to a designated hospital in Northern Ontario. On several occasions, he and his family were unable to obtain services in French when visiting their mother. They noticed that their mother received very few services in …
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A man shared with us his family’s experience after their dying mother was admitted to a designated hospital in Northern Ontario.
Positive result
A man complained to us about the lack of French language services at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic. The clinic was organized and operated by a hospital partially designated under the French Language Services Act . We contacted the facility and they acknowledged that the recruitment and deployment …
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A man complained to us about the lack of French language services at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic.
Services in French at home
A woman contacted us because she was unable to obtain home care services in French for her spouse, who had lost the ability to speak English due to health problems. She explained to us that the health care services provided in French through her local Home and Community Care Support Services office …
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A woman contacted us because she was unable to obtain home care services in French for her spouse, who had lost the ability to speak English due to health problems.
Skills in French required
A crane operator attempted to contact Skilled Trades Ontario (STO) to request an explanation regarding an invoice and was unable to obtain services in French. We contacted STO to raise the issue. As a result of our intervention, the telephone system was modified to ensure that clients requesting …
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A crane operator attempted to contact Skilled Trades Ontario (STO) to request an explanation regarding an invoice and was unable to obtain services in French.
Entitled to inclusion
We were contacted by a Francophone mother whose child identifies as female – which represented a change from the gender assigned to the child at birth. The child wanted a name change so that legal documents would reflect her identity. The child began the name change process with the Office of the …
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We were contacted by a Francophone mother whose child identifies as female – which represented a change from the gender assigned to the child at birth.
“Help wanted” in both languages
A man filed a complaint about Ontario Health’s job postings. The link for applications transferred job seekers to a third-party site. That site and the job postings on it were in English only. A message at the end of each job description indicated that the French version would be available shortly. …
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A man filed a complaint about Ontario Health’s job postings.
Without subtitles
A woman informed us that French subtitles had disappeared from the videos on the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development’s Facebook page entitled “ Lieux de travail de l’Ontario [Ontario At Work].” Although this page is in French, the majority of the videos are in English …
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A woman informed us that French subtitles had disappeared from the videos on the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development’s Facebook page entitled “Lieux de travail de l’Ontario [Ontario At Work].”
